JediAndi

OK, I've done it again, left a gap of several months or years between blog entries. Let's just agree that blogging is not really a skill I possess on a daily basis and leave it at that. After all, I'm here now and you're happy to see me, right?

I really just wanted to drop by and chuck a few things down while I had the urge to do so, it's been pretty hectic around me for the past year or so, and I wanted to get back into the normal groove of my life.

Recently, since the last time I posted, things have been a little rocky on the business front, I think the big interruption to life came at a bad time because when I got back to working we were bang in the middle of this fictional "credit crunch" or "economic downturn", I say fictional because I honestly believe that nothing has changed with regards to the amount of money in the world, or in people's desire to spend it, all that's happened is a bunch of bankers have got everyone scared about money, and probably quite rightly, because these bankers are meant to be good at looking after our money, and it turns out that they're actually really crap.

Anyway, on to happier things. Yesterday, as I was datamining the internet for potential marketing contacts, an email dropped into my inbox from a friend who does Hypnobirthing. It was completely unrelated to anything but I had been meaning to contact her, as part of my new marketing masterplan, and see about updating the coupon that she gives to her clients. So we had a chat and she asked me (yep, I don't even have to ask for help) if I would send a new copy of the voucher for her to distribute to all her clients. I happily reworked my old voucher and came up with a good looking one, which will hopefully drum up some business for the Maternity Photography I offer. as you can see. Her daughter, Erin, who appears in the photo, just turned one recently.

So she took the coupon and sent it out to everyone she ever met, and within a few short hours, I had received an email from a lady who has recently become involved with the Glasgow North chapter of the NCT (National Childbirth Trust). The NCT are an organisation which helps and supports women through pregnancy, childbirth and early years, I had previously looked at doing some marketing through them but ignored it because their operation apperaed to be nationally based and advertising space was pricey. Turns out however that they have local chapters who organise events, like the upcoming "Nearly New Sale" where mums can buy and sell things which their kids have outgrown, saving a little money over what they'd pay int he shops. Everyone who attends gets a goody bag full of vouchers etc. Normally it costs to put vouchers in, but since this woman is new I think she's looking to make the first event good and build relationships with businesses, so has offered to let me put vouchers in the 250 goody bags for free!!! I'm so happy, you can't buy this kind of coincidence. It just proves that it really is who you know, not what you know!!!

Last night, MyKitten finally got exposed to the movie making genius that is Memento. We'd been talking about it since we watched an episode of Stargate:Atlantis called Tabula Rasa, which makes use of some of the concepts from Memento (let's keep the "original thought" discussion for another day). So we watched right the way through the movie, with her getting more and more confused with every passing second, but tolerating it because she believed that it would all be explained at the end. It wasn't. The whole idea of leaving so many questions unanswered is to put you in the shoes of the lead character, since he doesn't ever know what's going on, and I love the movie for that, but she was not happy at all, she likes things that get neatly tied off at the conclusion.....Oh well.....

Today is another day of working my little touche to the bone, trying to squeeze just a little drop of blood from the stone of our economic climate. Wish me luck!!

Little Leondari (our baby lion) has just returned from his holiday in Germany. He managed to take a few photos while he was there, mostly of the trouble he was getting up to, and he asked me to share his adventure with the world.
OK, so I was there too, but it was really about getting Leondari and MyKitten their first big holiday. I did take some proper photos, I'm going through a bit of a panorama phase at the moment so there's a bit of work to be done to make them all pretty. I've got lots of work to catch up on and then I can get on the holiday snaps, so these should keep you all happy for the time being.

Catching the train:

I got out the shower this morning and started thinking about what I was going to do with my day. Then the phone rang. It was a girl who is on my email distribution list. Turns out she works for BBC Scotland. Turns out they are doing a thing about Nude Portraiture. Turns out they want me to be on live radio tomorrow morning.

I'm

Freaking

OUT!!!!!!!

This sort of thing never happens to me!! I'm so excited, it is such awesome marketing that I couldn't have bought for any money. The show is hosted by a scottish comedian called Fred MacAulay. His son goes to my old school.
I'll post an audio clip as soon as I can get one. This could be so great!!!

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god............................................................

A friend of mine just published a book!! I'm so excited about this because she's such an awesome person and she has a true gift for telling a story.
It is a fairy tale set in the Caribbean about a young fairy who makes an innocent blunder on what turns out to be the most important day of her school career. The repercussions of that, in combination with a string of misguided decisions result in her losing a most treasured gift! When she can no longer hide the truth (and in the face of great uncertainty) she faces a life changing choice.

Yesterday marked my very first newborn shoot, and I had such a blast! It certainly taught me a little more about patience than I used to know!!
The photos are just gorgeous and need almost nothing done to them.
I thought I'd share a few so you can all coo in harmony at them!!

I've been so busy these past few months that I have not had time to come and write a blog post in ages!! It's not that I haven't had stuff going on, it's just that I've had too much going on to write about it all before another thing comes along to get me.
I figured I ought to let everyone know that I am still alive, and business is going great, things just keep getting busier and busier, which of course leaves me with no time to come and write about stuff here.
I got pretty bored of all my old photos, so decided it was about time for a new one. So I trawled the net looking for inspiration and couldn't find anything that grabbed me, until one night when I recognised someone I saw in an episode of NCIS, so I just had to find who they were and what other show I'd seen them in. Hopped on over to IMDb.com and was browsing through a few things when I stumbled upon a gem of a headshot for an actor called Michael Weatherly (Tony DiNozzo in NCIS), so I set out to create an image of me in homage to that shot.
Here is the result. I like it.

This made MyKitten laugh until she cried, it is frighteningly reminiscent of her actual wakeup call...

I shot the wedding last Saturday, and have been slaving away this week to edit up the shots, except this week ahs been way way busier than usual and it has taken longer than I hoped, but here for your viewing pleasure is my personal favourite from the whole set. I really feel like my wedding photography has improved since the last one.

Do you realise that it has been over a whole year that I have managed to put up with MyKitten!?!?! A whole year!!! Somehow I've tolerated the many personalities of Kitten, I've placated the AngryKitten, I've managed to appease the HungryGrumpyKitten, I've even managed to sedate the FreakinOutArachnophobicKitten!!
Yesterday was our Fluffiversary, it was a great day. At the moment business is going really incredibly well, work seems to just be streaming forth from an unknown fountain of opportunity, I'm not complaining, I'm loving every minute of it!! Which of course means that I'm much happier and fluffier and able to take things as choose, not having to work with every random person who offers me a shiny sixpence for bending over and taking it from them, I get to pick and choose as I see fit and it meant that I could decide to take yesterday off (in as much as we, the self employed, will ever have an actual day off...) I still had to do some work, but managed to take some time to spend with MyKitten.
We'll have to wait until a little closer to Christmas to actually do something to celebrate but we don't mind, we'll have plenty of times to celebrate in the future.
I love MyKitten and I do what I can to make every day a fluffy day, to remind her just how important she is. Why not make today a special (or a specialer) day for someone you love??

Tomorrow I shall be shooting my third wedding ever, I'm not as nervous as previously, I think I've grown into the role of being a fantastic wedding photographer. It's a friend of mine getting married (as I mentioned in this post) she is an awesome bride-to-be (sorry Kelly!!) she has laid aside so much time for photos and has basically geared the entire wedding around me!! Seh has also very kindly invited MyKitten and I to the meal, if we weren't going to be shooting the wedding then we'd have merited an invite to the full day, but I have a job to do!!
This is Clair again:

I really am excited about this wedding, I know I can nail it. I've expanded my knowledge and kit to address all the teensy little problems I encountered at previous weddings, so I'm feeling damn confident about it all.
Business in general has rocketed this month, I was just getting to the worried about Christmas stage when all of a sudden the whole thing took off all by itself. I've had so many more enquiries, and more importantly I've had more clients. So I've covered off living expenses for at least the next two months already, and I'm still getting more people coming to me!! I'm really enjoying being self employed now, not just because I can choose what time I get up in the morning, but I'm really starting to enjoy the everyday part of the job!!
Speaking of which, I can't sit here voxing all day, I've got a successful business to run!!